Wizard: Starting With Synthesized Gems-Chapter 172: Perseus Eye Lichen

In the evening, at Locke's second botanical garden, beside the ten-acre magical field of Jade Iris Lichen that sparkled like a gemstone forest.
Locke crouched in front of a shield-shaped Jade Iris Lichen rootstock. Under the reflection of the differential magic mirror, he carefully guided the contaminated Super Mandrake Vines, grafting and cultivating them onto the Jade Iris Lichen.
The wounds of both plants created severe conflicts but Locke, following what he had envisioned thousands of times in his blueprints, carefully used the Mana Co-frequency Cultivation Method, switching different frequencies and using magical energy to modify the conflicting magical structure parts between the two.
The wounds between them gradually returned to normal, though occasionally they would suddenly burst out a stream of mucus. The mucus was filled with tiny white foam, but Locke's expression remained unchanged as he continued to methodically change the mana frequency under the reflection of the differential magic mirror.
Under Locke's precise operation, the two magical plants were soon successfully grafted together. The wounds of both plants healed together, the Super Mandrake Vines showed positive changes, and then the Jade Iris Lichen variant also began to transform.
The originally round shield-shaped Jade Iris Lichen developed concentric circular patterns on its surface. These concentric patterns formed an eye-like design, with the whites and pupil areas remarkably lifelike.
"It's complete." Seeing this scene, a trace of faint joy appeared on Locke's face.
He bent down and used a tool knife to cut open the surface of this Jade Iris Lichen, dripping the fungal mucus secreted from its surface into the mixed blood from twenty-one common curse victims that he had collected at the Healing Hand Treatment Center.
As soon as the mucus was dripped into the mixed blood, it was like flame meeting ice and snow. The mixed curses within the blood rapidly receded, and in almost no time, the originally filthy black blood transformed into a healthy bright red color.
"Success." Excitement appeared in Locke's eyes. "Through grafting cultivation, I have indeed used the Jade Iris Lichen's own mechanism to complete a magical plant mutation."
"This Jade Iris Lichen has completely mutated into another type of magical plant lichen, with its own characteristics and properties."
"Moreover, the mucus secreted from its fungal surface has acquired broad-spectrum resistance against ordinary curses. The blood was mixed with many types of curses, but after contact with the mucus, they all subsided." Locke pondered.
He took out a Curse Stone he had previously purchased at Chimera Trading Market from his astral ring. The curse stone's exterior resembled a pebble.
Simply crushing it would release the curse that had been stored within.
Curse stones couldn't store very powerful curses, so they were generally only used by white wizards for experiments and research.
At this moment, Locke crushed the curse stone, and immediately the 0.3-circle Bleeding Curse hidden within struck the Jade Iris Lichen variant in the magical field before him.
Instantly, the eye pattern on the surface of the Jade Iris Lichen flowed with a strange light, then actually reflected the curse back, transforming it into an emerald green light that fell onto the fragments of the curse stone in his hand, completely purifying the remaining curse within.
A flash of excitement crossed Locke's eyes.
The previous test could only prove that this Jade Iris Lichen had developed broad-spectrum magical resistance but this practical combat test proved that this Jade Iris Lichen indeed possessed a certain curse reflection function as he had previously envisioned.
"I saw in that B-level article I purchased before that grafting Tiflo Root Vines onto a defensive combat magical plant accidentally produced a certain weak attack magic reflection ability."
"At that time, I guessed that the automatic counterattack characteristics of magical vines could be partially inherited by defensive magical plants."
"The author of that article later conducted several more experiments, all of which failed. In his article, he made multiple hypotheses about these failures and his previous accidental success. One hypothesis was that his mana precision wasn't sufficient."
"That's why all subsequent experiments failed. Because of this, his article only scored 71 points, just B-level. If he could find a method to improve the success rate, his article would probably be rated A-level."
Locke said, "So following his suggestions, I repeated the grafting cultivation of magical vines and defensive magical plants under the ideal conditions he hypothesized in his article. I rented the differential magic mirror and the focus technique monocle."
"Then, relying on the Deep Blue Jade to enhance my mana precision, I reduced the magical component conflicts between the Super Mandrake Vines and Jade Iris Lichen, and it actually succeeded."
A flash of satisfaction crossed Locke's eyes. He had originally just wanted to try it out, since the final magical plant curse had actually cursed his own work, the Super Mandrake Vines.
So he might as well use the Super Mandrake Vines to complete the hypothetical experiment from the article he had purchased.
Who knew it would allow him to go further and cultivate a defensive magical plant that somewhat exceeded his expectations.
"The article system in Lilith's Cottage, or rather White Wizard Association, is indeed very meaningful."
Locke pondered, "If I hadn't purchased those six B-level articles, even if I could eventually create a defensive magical plant, it would probably take much more time, and the results wouldn't be as good as now."
"That article gave me great inspiration."
"I need to think of a new name for this new variety of lichen." Locke began thinking. "Unfortunately, this magical plant has been classified as level 7 by the Synthesis Cube."
"It's probably because its original Jade Iris Lichen was already a level 7 synthetic plant."
Locke remembered the story from ancient Greek mythology he had seen in his previous life, where Perseus used a shield to reflect Medusa's petrification curse, and said, "Then let's call it Perseus Eye Lichen."
"The appearance of this mutated lichen resembles a shield, and it also has a certain magical counterattack ability."
"It fits quite well with that mythological story. Since I'm the original creator, I can call it whatever I want. I don't need to worry about others not understanding the meaning behind the name Perseus Eye."
"Next, I'll use this combat magical plant for further practical combat data testing, then write a and submit it to the custom magical plant competition held by the combat department within half a month."
Locke thought, "If I can make it into the top three, it could earn me another academy procurement order."
"Moreover, since I can replicate the hypothetical experiment from that B-level article, I can continue to delve deeper in this field. This way, I should be able to write my first A-level article at Lilith's Cottage."
An A-level article could earn him more contribution points and greater honor, and contribution points meant he could exchange for opportunities to enter wizard secret realms.
Honor would bring him more conveniences and allow him to obtain many titles and additional rewards from Lilith's Cottage.